Emergent trade opportunities in the oil sector between Brazil and the region will be highlighted at an upcoming conference in Dubai.

Platts Oil Markets Middle East Conference 2013, organized by McGraw Hill Financial’s energy and commodities information arm Platts, will take place on December 11 and 12 at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai.

Themed ‘Understanding the Region´s Evolving Role within Global Oil Markets’, the conference will assemble international specialists, region's foremost oil majors, refiners, physical traders and financial players.

During key panel discussions and keynote addresses, speakers will assess the changing landscape of global oil trade and discuss the region's upstream and downstream capacity advances and their impact on world oil trade, pricing and benchmarks.

Jan Dabrowa, commercial director of GrupoBraz - BrazArtis, an import-export company from Rio de Janeiro, said: “Middle East accounts for considerable portion of Brazil´s oil imports and continues to be the country’s leading trade partners. Brazil´s current dependence on derivatives, LNG, diesel oil from the Gulf Region continues to fuel this trade but with Brazil´s new oil discoveries and strives to gain self-sufficiency, it is necessary to evaluate the changing dynamics and arising investment opportunities.”

According to the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) Brazil imported about $2.76 billion worth of petroleum products, gas and energy from the Middle East in the first quarter of 2013 which accounted for almost 20 per cent of total oil imports to the country.

“With an aggressive plan to become one of the largest oil producers in the world, Brazil intends to triple its output by 2035 and reach 6 million barrels per day,” added Dabrowa.

“As part of this initiative Brazil has auctioned the Libra fields in October which hold an estimated 8 to 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil and it was the biggest oil prospect in the world to be auctioned this year. In light of $400 billion and estimated 35 years to explore Libra´s oil deposits, the prospects offer potential for investors and opportunities of exporting acquired know-how from the Middle East.”

In the first quarter of 2013, Saudi Arabia was the larger supplier of oil to Brazil, where Algeria contributed to $867.75 million, Kuwait $508 million, the UAE $130 million, Iraq $104 million, Libya $78 million, Qatar $36 million and Bahrain $660,000, according to ABCC.

GrupoBraz - BrazArtis specializes in offering full consulting and trade solutions to companies wanting to enter the Brazilian market, source bulk quantity products and/or expanding their operations abroad. – TradeArabia News Service